Downtown May Get Upturn New Smyrna Merchants Launch Fund Drive To Perk Up Business District

April 23, 1989|By Pat LaMee of The Sentinel Staff

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Business leaders will be pounding the streets in the mainland shopping district this week to look for people willing to put a few dollars into a massive program to revitalize the downtown business district.

''We'll be going door to door,'' said Skip Barnes, fund-raising chairman for New Smyrna Beach Main Street Inc. The group formed three months ago to raise $210,000 over the next three years.

The downtown area stretches from U.S. Highway 1 to Riverside Drive and from Lytle Avenue to Washington Street.

''We need to get about $70,000 from residents, civic groups, businesses, the city . . . anyone interested in bringing new life to the area,'' Barnes said. ''We need to work within the city to raise funds so we can get some state and federal grants.''

Business leaders got ''fired up'' over the revitalization project, he said, because of some derogatory comments, such as: ''Within five years, the downtown area will be somewhere out on State Road 44.''

Business leaders and chamber of commerce officials formed the Main Street group because of fierce competition from several shopping centers,

''Main Street is a trade name for a national program of revitalizing business areas,'' said Fred Baker, executive vice president of the area chamber of commerce.

''It's a proven project that has worked in about 400 cities across the country,'' he said. ''We want the residents to support the project. It's important to them to keep the downtown business area alive.''

The ''advocacy and action'' project to be developed over the next three years includes a four-pronged attack:

- Organization to bring public and private groups together to work more effectively for downtown improvements.

- Promotion of a variety of activities to tell people the downtown area is a meeting and gathering place filled with active, lively stores, quality goods and services and community focuses.

- Designs that enhance the visual appeal, such as preservation of downtown's historic value, coordination of buildings, window displays, signs and landscaping.

Main Street, led by chairman John Albright, plans to work with the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, which is working on plans for additional and improved parking and a streetscape design, said Baker.

''If we are approved as one of three cities that each year are designated as Main Street cities, we'll get a $10,000 state grant to share with businesses who need to upgrade their buildings,'' said Baker.

''And we'd also be eligible for a state-funded survey of the business district . . . Without being named a Main Street city, we'd have to pay for that study - about $7,000 to $10,000 - with our donations.''

Competition is intense for the state money, said Baker, but the city is ideal for the designation because the business district is near the Indian River and the district is fairly compact.

''It also helps when we raise the needed $70,000 each year because that proves we have the support of the community,'' Baker said.